Mobile Deathcamp readies new album

Mobile Deathcamp is a wicked national band from Toledo — a working, touring metal band with a record deal and a new album.

“Clear and Present Anger” officially releases this November on Turkey Vulture Records. To avoid relying wholly on any record label, MDC has been digitally distributing the album via online distributors and mobiledeathcamp.net.

During a recent interview with the band at its practice location, guitarist/vocalist Todd Evans spoke to the addition of drummer Dave Martin.

Mobile Deathcamp

“Dave joined Boe [Skadeland] and me back in April. We worked with Dave so that he could play 50 minutes of the older songs with us. Once he was caught up we started working on new music,” he said.

According to MDC bassist Skadeland, the music on the new album is “better than the last batch.” With the sophomore slump vanquished, MDC’s new material pounds face.

“We feel that this record captures the energy and spirit of early speed metal,” Evans said.

What’s the difference between this and the last album?

“Well, for starters, we’re eating more Mexican food now that Dave is in the band,” Evans laughed. “But seriously, Dave has ‘punk foot’ and that’s really let us step things up. The new music is definitely more intense than the last.”

With its new “punk foot” drummer, MDC’s new record captures the speed metal sound when it was at a critical crossover point.

“People who like Slayer, Agnostic Front, D.R.I. will like this record. It sounds like speed metal when it first broke, before it was considered thrash metal,” Evans said.

MDC is focusing on one of the hardest things to conquer — its hometown.

“We are always letting people know where we come from. When we go out and tour we’re always wearing something that says ‘Toledo’,” Evans said. “We are just trying to gain mutual support here.”

MDC made sure to include at least one radio-ready single on its new album.

“We covered Thin Lizzy’s ‘Emerald’ on this record,” Skadeland said. “There’s no reason this shouldn’t be all over 104.7 or The Riff. It’s radio-friendly and fits their formats perfectly.”

MDC will resume touring this fall, starting with its record release show slated for early November.

“We are going to start touring again and our goal is to hitch our trailer to another big band’s hitch,” Evans said. “We want to be able to roll into a town like Wichita on a Tuesday night and play for a large crowd.”

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Toledo band tours with GWAR

What is more rad than going to a GWAR show? How about being on tour with the crazy sons-a-bitches? That is what Toledo’s Mobile Deathcamp (MDC) is doing right now.

The Bloody Tour of Horror, which stops in 55 U.S. and Canadian cities, runs through the end of December. According to MDC bassist Boe Skadeland, “GWAR pulls a big crowd. The shows are good every night; it’s going awesome. We’re playing the Electric Factory in Philly and it holds 2,300 people and it will most likely be sold out.

Mobile Deathcamp

“The crowd’s response to MDC has been amazing. You couldn’t ask for any better response,” Skadeland said. “The fans really dig us because they like the direction of our music. It’s different than all the cookie-cutter stuff that’s out there.”

MDC’s new CD “Black Swamp Rising” has been selling well at the shows. “People tell us it’s so awesome to hear music that doesn’t sound like everyone else,” Skadeland said.

With momentum building, MDC has no plans of slowing down after this 55-show tour is finished.

“We’re tryin’ to build the fanbase and get out to more and more people,” Skadeland said. “That’s the name of the game, you gotta be touring.”

After the tour ends in December, MDC will take only one week off. After its short break, MDC is off to California for a run of shows and to make appearances at this year’s National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show.

“We’re going to be playing shows in California in January and we’re taking local band Blood of The Prophets with us,” Skadeland said. “NAMM is the biggest music industry show in the country. It’s a big schmooze-fest and we’re going to hang with the people that sponsor us like Spector and Dean. It’s a chance to rub elbows with industry people.”

Despite playing with heavy-hitters like GWAR and playing sold-out shows around the country, Skadeland said, “Frankie’s is still our favorite place to play. The vibe of the club is classic Toledo and the Toledo fans come out and dig us and they’re really cool people. There’s a lot of bands and people that come from Toledo and people don’t even know it.”

The Bloody Tour of Horror will be making some stops within a few short hours of Toledo. On Oct. 13, the tour stops at The House of Blues in Cleveland, The Newport in Columbus on Oct. 27 and at Harpo’s in Detroit on Oct. 30.

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Mobile Deathcamp pulls into Frankie’s on Aug. 28

Buried treasure in terms of musical gems are usually as hard to find as the gold and precious stone equivalent, but if you know where to look it’s not nearly as hard to acquire.

Mobile Deathcamp, Toledo’s own metal monsters, aren’t as much “buried” as they are overlooked.

“We played almost 200 shows last year, and it’s basically the same this year,” said MDC bassist Boe Skadeland in a recent interview. Skadeland, along with guitarist/vocalist Todd Evans (GWAR, Lazy American Workers) and drummer Scott “Cracker” MacEachern (Descendant, Spor) have been a power-trio for the last two years-plus and are signed to Sacrifice Records Inc.

“We were signed to a major label but we were having too much trouble with them. They were trying to branch out into metal, but it was though as they forgot about us once they had us signed,” Skadeland said. “We didn’t sign with a label for the money as much as we did for the promotion and support. One of the owners of Sacrifice knew who we were, how hard we tour and how much momentum we had and liked what we had to offer. We ended up getting a release from our other contract and signed with Sacrifice.”

Mobile Deathcamp

Before signing with Sacrifice Records, MDC had completed a studio album and was pushing it almost exclusively at live shows.

“The only way you could get the first album was to come to a MDC show,” Skadeland said. Because of the new contract with Sacrifice Records, “Within the next three weeks or so that album will be available globally at major retailers.”

With the support of its new label and in the interest of maintaining its impressive momentum, MDC is working on new material as it tours and plans on releasing yet another studio album after the first of the year.

“The writing process varies for us, Todd writes a lot of the material and I contribute, but some of the material is a collaborative effort,” Skadeland said.

What can you expect at an MDC show? According to Skadeland, “It’s definitely high-energy. We’re not the type of band that takes themselves too seriously, we’re out to have fun and we do this because we like playing. In between songs, it’s more like a comedy show.”

Proud to be Toledo natives, MDC ensures that fans and guests at its shows know who who it and where it comes from.

“There is a section in every show where we say ‘We’re Mobile Deathcamp from Toledo Ohio’, and Todd will say that three times and get the crowd yelling ‘Toledo, Ohio’!” Skadeland said. “We’ll have 1,000 people plus yelling ‘Toledo Ohio,’ every show.”

Even with its undying support for Toledo, loads of national and international tour dates and shows with some of the biggest names in metal, MDC finds it hard to garner local support from its own Toledo family.

“We’ve found it hard to get attention from local media,” Skadeland said. “And when we approached Toledo institutions for support it was like they didn’t want anything to do with us. We just wanted some jerseys to wear at our shows to promote our city and our sports teams, and we couldn’t even get that, but I still wear a Mud Hens jersey out on tour.”

Take some time this weekend to go out and support our signed, touring metal band. Mobile Deathcamp is playing at Frankie’s on Aug. 28. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased from Culture Clash or Ramalama Records.

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